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Man Who Spotted F1 Newcomer Max Chilton's Potential Says He Will Impress In 2013
Race two at the Teretonga track saw a big crowd camped out looking forward to the days action, and drying out inside and out after a torrential downpour overnight.
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Starting in the positions they finished the race one, ETEC packed the midfield and were looking for improvement from the start. And so it was with Jann Mardenborough, Tatiana Calderon and Akash Nandy all making places off the line. The only negative was the jumped start for hapless Singaporean Tang, who is learning the hard way on his single-seater debut.
The pace was hot throughout the field, the drivers looking like they meant business as an ETEC train (Mardenborough, Calderon, Sathienthirukal, Nandy) formed from 10th to 13th until the race was neutralized by a safety car after Tang spun off in sympathy as the Norwegian Olson went off at Turn 5.
At the restart the field were compressed by a crawling polesitter causing chaos in the midfield as the race restarted. ETEC ran side-by-side into Turn 1 and team boss Trevor Shumack must have had his heart in his mouth as they disappeared into Turn 1. However he need not have worried as all emerged unscathed and Madenborough moved up a place to ninth at the expense of Latifi.
At the flag Mardenborough, led ETEC home for more points in a solid team performance.
Race Three
For the first time in the weekend ETEC started with two cars, both rookies, in the top ten with Mardenborough and Nandy filling seventh and ninth respectively, so anticipation of a good result was high.
A good start from all the ETEC runners saw positions maintained with the only changes being Calderon, who made a move on teammate Sathienthirakul.
The team had held 7th, 9th 11th, 12th and 14th with Tang making amends for his difficult times thus far, and finally getting some rewards
The carnage soon unfolded when Alex Lynn and Felix Serralles came together, resulting in Lynn hitting an infield marshal’s post at 240kmh, flipping several times in the air before coming to rest. Remarkably he emerged unscathed but the race was immediately stopped.
At the restart Nandy and Mardenborough looked very comfortable, making moves and running sixth and seventh respectively, with the young Malaysian impressing on his TRS debut.
Calderon and Sathienthirakul were having there own battle, whilst Tang stayed in touch. Out of position Cassidy and local specialist Leitch were closing fast on the tail of Nandy, and experience told as they made the passes without to much resistance.
Mardenborough battled on, although Leitch made a move stick through Turn 7 after the Brit slipped wide at Turn 5.
At the flag it was the best result of the weekend for ETEC, 7th for Mardenborough, 9th for Nandy, and 11th 12th and 13th for the following ETEC runners.
Team Manager Trevor Schumack reflected on the weekend “Our rookies have outperformed expectation, we’ve had some good finishes and no incidents to speak of, I’m satisfied that we have some good young drivers that can learn and move up as the series moves on.”
Mardenborough seemed satisfied after a weekend that had promised more for the Welshman who had just completed his first weekend of single-seater racing, “We improved the car a lot and I felt more comfortable to push, we had some speed being only 2 tenths off of fastest lap.”
Nandy was the days surprise package, “That was an awesome race.” It is hard to disappoint the 16 year-old who is clearly loving the level of racing competition that he is in.
Calderon expected better, “I just didn’t seem to have the straight line pace of the other cars so I couldn’t really challenge, although a mistake free weekend was good,I just wanted better results.”
Andrew Tang and Sathienthirakul had trying weekends and will be looking forward to Timaru next week to show what they can do.
The TRS now moves North to Timaru for three more races commencing 17th January.
PaddockTalk Perspective
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